Accessibility Guidelines

MIT is committed to providing equal access to information technology in accordance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Pages should comply with MIT accessibility guidelines found on the Adaptive Technology for Information and Computing (ATIC) Web site. These are based on the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Choosing the right font family, size, and color is a very important part of making your web pages accessible. This brochure contains basic guidelines for making effective legibility choices that work for nearly everyone - http://www.lighthouse.org/print_leg.htm.

Below is a list of quick tips from the W3C to make accessible Web sites.

• Images and animations. Use alt attribute to describe the function of each visual.
• Image maps. Use the client-side map element and text for hotspots.
• Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video.
• Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid "click here".
• Page organization. Use headings, lists, and consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible.
• Graphs and charts. Summarize or use the longdesc attribute.
• Scripts, applets. and plug-ins. Provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported.
• Frames. Use noframes element and meaningful titles.
• Tables. Make line-by-line reading sensible. Summarize.
• Check your work. Test your site at Cynthia Says portal.